Recently several former tracks turned up. The group I am with we have been hunting former PA tracks and have found the exact location of several hundred. Pennsylvania leads the country in former speedways, a sad but true fact. Steve Williams, who is on here regularly is a big help. For several years we heard of a track near Wilkes Barre that people called the Rat Races. The track came to life after Bone Stadium in Pittston closed. Steve hunted for years and recently found the track. It was west of Plymouth and today is a pond.

Back in my youth I talked to a guy and he told me about racing at the Benton Speedway. He said it was a high banked quarter mile dirt track. He was running third in the race when he went to lap a guy for the second time. The guy took him out leading to a fight on the speedway. He said the two were rolling around the speedway surface and the flagman didn't throw a caution. As they were fighting race cars were zooming by on both sides.

I went looking for the track near Benton, PA. It seemed like a logical choice. Folks around Benton said there was never a track there. I finally gave up.

Recently I got the bug to hunt for Benton. I once again searched the Benton region but nothing came up. Then, I discovered there is a Benton Township north of Scranton. Finally the hunt is over. I found the bugger and it was as described - a dirt, banked quarter mile oval. The track was on top of a mountain overlooking the Lackawanna Lake. Part of the speedway is still there.

I recently found an advertisement for races at Tom's Garage Track in western PA. This is a new one that no one knew about. We also located a jalopy track at the town of Salona near Lock Haven.

Finding these things is a lot of fun. I recently made a stop at the former Vargo Dragway southeast of Quakertown. Drag strip is still there and very easy to find. While in New Jersey I stopped by the former East Windsor track. It is now a fancy housing development. I drove around the development but there is nothing there to indicate a speedway was at that location. Steve Bubb

big thank you for letting everyone know about these defunct tracks. Steve Williams has shown me many pics at SG of his finds and they are very interesting. seeing aerial shots, especially when they are overlayed on a current map is awesome. i'm sure you're aware but in case you're not and for anyone interested in "what used to be there" this site http://www.pennpilot.psu.edu/ is awesome as you can get aerial photos back to the 30's

_________________My OPINIONS are just that and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of anyone or any track I am associated with!

Penn Pilot is excellent. It is run by the state. They have a bigger collection of aerials at their aerial and topo library located north of Middletown. Another good site is Historical Aerials. Other states like Pennsylvania have aerial collections on line. Iowa is one that is real good. and Indiana is another.

Not all former tracks are buried under malls, houses and such. There are some good ones out there like Berwick Beach Haven, Rummage's Grove at Hunlock Creek, Greater Pittsburgh at Clinton, of course Circle M at Auburn. Some others include Bowling Green, Sportsman's, Fireball Stadium, Clearview near Aliquippa, Glen Drive, Hickory, the big Hustontown track, Iroquois, Lancaster, Langhorne (the back part of the track is still there), Sanatoga, Mount Joy, Motordome Ruffsdale, Mountain View, New Uniontown, Penn, North Hills, Queen, Spring Church, Three Point, Thunderbowl, West End, and more.

It is very neat, but sad, to find a speedway that use to race in the past. A few months back, a couple friends and I went looking for the old track, outside Shippensburg PA., near Cleversburg. I did hear the name of that speedway, but can't remember what it was. I'm sure there is somebody on here that knows the name of it. It is well growed up now, I mean well. We were just walking thru a wood area and all of a sudden we come to a guard rails. We also found some wooden bleaches, **** near rotted away. It is very neat finding this stuff.

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